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Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Top Ten Tuesday (6)

Top Ten Tuesday is a Tuesday book meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish to make lists of our favourite books or book-related topics. For this week's theme I picked five trends I'd like to see more of and five trends I'd like to see less of in YA lit. Great theme!

Top Ten Books Trends You'd Like to See More/Less Of

More Of

1. International settings. While fictional locations in fantasy books are the most enchanting and desirable, I still find real-life settings to be great. I'd love more variety though. I haven't read many books set in international countries without them being about cultural differences or history (i.e. Germany in World War II). Anything not set in the States would be awesome!

2. Mythology. There's been a recent uprising in mythology-based novels but barely enough to make a dent with all the contemporary and paranormal romances. Maybe something based in Rome rather than Greece? Or something Chinese? There are so many myths and stories to use as inspiration!

3. Platonic/non-romantic relationships. In almost every YA book the main character is in a romantic relationship. That's why books like How to Say Goodbye in Robot or Witchlanders are so shocking and different. Purely platonic relationships? No hints of romance at all? So refreshing! I'd love to see more authors explore friendships as relations rather than romance as the default.

4. Adult authors writing a YA novel. There's been a few adult authors writing their first teen novels lately and producing some top quality lit. They're bringing over their adult audience, being recognized by a larger audience, and usually arriving with a bigger reputation than most debut YA authors. I hope more adult authors take the plunge and try it out!

5. Based on true stories.Freaks and Revelations was the first YA book I read based on a true story and I was immediately drawn to the reality of the scenario. I did a bit of research afterwards into the lives of the protagonists and it was great to find out more about their lives. YA novels are a great way to introduce teens and YA readers to real events like the Ecuadorian slavery (Queen of Water) or the Holocaust (Anne Frank).

Less Of

1. Unplanned series. When writing a book I would assume that the author intends to end it at the end or leave it open for more books. I understand that not all books are sold as series or sequels but it's frustrating when so many books are becoming 5-10 book series when it's obvious there were only supposed to be 2 or 3. I wish authors stayed true to their original thought about "I want a quartet!" straight from the start.

2. Best friends falling in love. While it's the age old romance that makes your heart soar, it's really annoying and predictable when the best friends end up together. Why can't people meet at school and go on dates, or be introduced by friends? There doesn't always have to be some magical revelation that we all saw from the first chapter.

3. Hypersexuality. Teenagers have sex. Yes. But it's not necessary to portray all your main characters as sex-crazed maniacs. I've read one too many books where the characters can't wait to finally have sex for the first time, or all they do with your partner is sexually related. There's more to teenage relationships and while many of them do involve sex, not all of them are to this extent.

4. Forgiveness. This might seem like an odd one to add but I'm a little bored of protagonists making huge life-altering choices/mistakes and everyone else just forgiving them right away. Killing someone? Oh, it's okay, you were possessed, no harm done. No! Even in paranormal fantasies we shouldn't just expect supporting characters to rally around the protagonist after they do terrible things just because they're the main character. There should be more consequences for actions.

5. Love triangles. Everyone else was gonna include it so I had to too. Girl emotionally torn between her nerdy best friend and handsome "new-kid-at-school"? Yawn. I'd love to see it reversed to one guy torn between two girls. That'd be awesome! Or maybe something like in Love Inc. where the main character dates several people and has many love interests sequentially. It does happen in real life!

27 comments:

I thought the same thing about 1 guy, 2 girls! I tried to imagine it, but I could easily see people taking it as the guy leading them on/being a manipulative jerk. I don't know why it's more acceptable for girls to be torn between two guys, but it seems to be sexism-related... I'd love to see it done successfully though!

I think sexual relationships seems to be something that authors find really hard to portray accurately. It either seems like there is way too much of it and it's unbelievably awesome, even when it's everyone's first time, or the books swing the other way entirely and everyone is over the top chaste.

Awesome list! I love both of them, though I'll say the forgiveness part I adore if it's in contemporary YA, not really for para. Ack and hypersexuality, I just read a book set in high school and I'm like "wow, I obviously hung out with the wrong crowd in high school because I had no idea the entire population was having so much sex". And unplanned series! ech,And I'd have to say adult authors writing YA isn't really my thing (of what I read) but there's probably some good ones out there.

I want to see more mythology and friendship and fewer love triangles. I like your idea of exploring Roman mythology. I haven't really liked a lot of the adult authors turned YA authors though. I guess it's good for marketing, but I find they don't often "get" the YA feel and just cobble together a few stereotypes and call it a day. Though I did really like Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep.

I love your answers! I'd definitely like to see more international settings too. I'd love to see more books set in Canada, as well - even authors who are Canadian rarely set their books in Canada! That's one thing I made sure to do in my book - a city that's fairly recognizable, and then a fictional town, but they're in Canada. Just went through your list again, and I basically agree with everything, so I won't clutter up your comments by commenting about each thing lol. Really good points!

I'm going to echo everyone and say that I love your international settings answer! And I'd add to it that I'd love more dystopian novels where the Only Remaining Place in The World isn't the US. Yes, it's harder writing in other cultures, but it's so worth it!

If I made a list, it would be this. Exactly. I would love to get away from the US and read more about other places. I am also sick of books being added on to series that had definite endings (Mortal Instruments, I'm looking at you). Great answers!

This is a perfect list for the topic. I would LOVE to see more platonic relationships in YA. I mean, I have nothing against romance. I love reading it! Just a bit more often though, I want to see people that care about each other and interact often without being in a relationship.

Also, I kind of love books with no sequels just because it's something different. Some series that are still growing now just make me wonder if it's ever going to end. '__________ #343' - The adventures of _____ and ______'s grandchildren!

Fantastic list! I definitely like to read books set in other countries and like reading mythology based books. Some of my favorites are Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles series. I would like to see someone write books featuring the Hindu gods. That would be something different!

Yay for more mythology! And you're right about the forgiveness, it's really annoying. You mentioned a Peter Pan retelling, can you tell me the name of the book? I'd LOVE to read that, Peter Pan was my first ever fictional crush...